


The Art of Dawn

by SunnyD_lite



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Drabble Series, Gen, multi-season
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-05
Updated: 2010-04-05
Packaged: 2017-10-08 17:57:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/78059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunnyD_lite/pseuds/SunnyD_lite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I'm bored!" <br/>"You say you're creative, find something!"</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Art of Dawn

**Author's Note:**

> TamingtheMuse Prompt: Triskele (picture)  
> A/N: We saw Dawn in art class...that got me thinking.  
> Set: Early sn 5 &amp; 6

**Early Season Five**

"I'm bored!"

"You say you're creative, find something." Buffy glared at her sister. "Quietly, Mom's trying to sleep."

Mom being sick wasn't right. Mom took care of them. Well Buffy slayed beasties, but Mom did the important stuff.

Mom hadn't been really sick since the divorce. Back then Dawn's crafts had made her laugh. It was a cheesy idea, but.

A little investigation found her materials.

An hour and two bottles of Elmer's safety glue later and presto, a macaroni, fusilli, and spaghetti horse.

Mom's smile was so totally worth the glued hair, plus she'd left the mess for Buffy.

#

**Mid Season Five Before Blood Ties **

She didn't like garbage duty, but you could learn bunches by the papers throw away after a Scooby meeting. None of them liked meetings despite having so many. The mountains of crumpled papers covered in doodles made that abundantly clear.

But even if she didn't know their handwriting, what they doodled gave them away.

Tara should have done botany. Her pages overflowed with flowers and leaves looking like a textbook.

Xander's held buildings and tools. Once he even had "better mousetrap".

Willow's looked like traditional doodles, but when a sheet started glowing Dawn dropped it.

Buffy? Hearts. Lately all broken.  
#

** During The Gift **

Not that Dawn would admit it, but the gown Glory had thrust at her was sort of cool in a Renaissance Faire kinda way. She'd use to draw dresses like that when she in her princess phase.

But her daydreams never featured her as the sacrifice.

Although, she hadn't really had those daydreams. Hadn't drawn the dresses. Hadn't dressed up in Buffy's clothes, pretending.

She was pretend. The people Glory hurt saw her as glowy green. Why green? She'd always hated green. Or maybe not.

Glory didn't care about Dawn, even if Ben did. All Glory saw was the Key.

**Summer after Season Five**

"Super-secret Scooby meeting?" Dawn dropped on the sofa beside Spike. "I'm not a baby. You shouldn't get stuck with me."

He raised his eyebrow. "What? I'd rather hang with that lot than you, Niblet? Thought you were the smart one." He reached for, and put away, a cigarette. "So movie? Poker?"

She shook her head, sending her hair flying. "Got a favour."

"Raising the dead again?" He always said that.

"Things change too quickly – I don't know what's real." Dawn pulled out a camera. "I don't have enough pictures of Mom or..." Her voice trailed off. "Help me freeze time?"

**Early Season Six**

Being ordered to clean the post-flood basement wasn't the punishment Buffy intended. Not that she was giving up griping rights, but not everything got wet. She found Grandma Summers' floral china plates, and the matching tea set. Should she pull them out for Giles?

Then there were photo albums – birthday parties, Christmases, bad hair days -- the monks' ingenuity continued to amaze her.

Those things were predictable. When she stumbled over a file of finger painting pictures marked "Dawn at Daycare" her hands still remembered the paint's slick feel. The memories might be fake but they were all she had.

**Post Season Six**

Dawn walked into art class and stared at the diagram on black board. At first she thought it was mystic, the default position for any Scooby. Not any of the pagan rituals she knew, but as Buffy kept pointing out, she didn't know everything.

Once the black and white sketch was filled in, she saw her error. Not a mystic gate, but a symbol of overlap. Red. Blue. Yellow. All forming orange, green, purple with the secondary colors part of one, part of another yet neither.

Part Key, part Summers. But enclosed in a circle that let her be both.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by these two images:   
> Picture Prompt: This was the prompt – Triskele which made me think of Colour Venn Diagram  
> There you go, way more about my process than you wanted!


End file.
